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Fadzayi Maposah
Correspondent
This week I had the opportunity to relieve my boarding school years! I have since Sunday been living in a dormitory set up.
The only difference is that the boarding school set up that I experienced this week had many bathroom amenities, a luxury that I never got to realise during my adolescent years.
Back in high school, the bathroom amenities were highly communal. There would be bathrooms with many little cubicles.
It meant that at any given time, many girls could bath. Now the bathroom amenities at the “boarding” facility that I was at were complete and spacious.
It was a full room, no cubicles to divide the spaces. The privacy in the bathroom was awesome.
So too was the liberating feeling that one would not bump against anything during bathing, it was heavenly luxury!
The only challenge with such luxurious space is that the cleaning, especially after taking a bath, is a bit cumbersome.
Let us leave the bathroom a bit.
So I shared the room with three other ladies. The four of us are in the same age ranges.
You do remember that I am getting to menopause? This is rather a trying phase especially if one has little information regarding it. With menopause comes a variety of signs and symptoms. These signs and symptoms were well represented in the room.
One of my room mates, Yvonne had challenges putting on her jersey or coat. You know how as adults we chase after children who refuse to put on warm clothes when it t is cold?
This was the task that three women had, dealing with another grown woman.
When Yvonne put on her coat early morning, the three of us would be almost frozen. She is at the point in her life where she battling hot flashes.
My friend, Mandy, who was among the room mates would caution her that the cold was accumulating within her and that it was only a matter of time when this would haunt her !
While some of us would be well layered in terms of clothing, Yvonne would be lying on top of her blankets, staring at the ceiling as she relaxed preparing herself to sleep.
Once she fell asleep, she would sleep throughout the night. Sleep flat, may I add! Insomnia is not her portion. It did not matter whether she had taken an afternoon nap or not, she would happily enjoy her rest in dreamland!
Mandy on the other hand would walk into the room and ask why we had closed the windows early.
I would pull back the thick navy blue curtains just to check that the windows had been closed.
When I announced that the windows were open she would gape in utter surprise.
Mandy’s bed and mine were by the window. When she got to her bed, she would double check the window, sit and start fanning herself with whatever was nearby, usually it would be a book.
While she did this, she would have beads of sweat well formed on her forehead. Another room mate dealing with hot flashes.
Let me introduce Barbra, my other roommate for the week. Now this one is a smart lady. We knew that our stay together would be a week long.
Barbra brought with her two kilogrammes of washing powder. Now I am not questioning why she brought the washing powder, it is the amount that rather fascinated me. Soon like in my high school days, we discovered that we needed the washing powder and we would ask for some. Barbra would allow us to take from the cupboard where she had put it away neatly.
Not only had Barbra brought washing powder, she too had a bunch of beautiful plastic flowers that she put by her bed. These flowers she had packed and ensured that they would beautify the place that she stayed even if it was just a week! The three of us who had not brought any flowers were in awe that as we struggled to remember the toiletries that we had to take with us, Barbra remembered her toiletries, and even added plastic flowers.
When we got into the room, there were two beds, a mattress and a couch. Mandy and Barbra slept on the beds, I slept on the mattress which was laid nicely on the floor. Yvonne declared that she had no problem sleeping on the couch, which she did but she was thankful when a bed was brought for her the next day!
In the first three days, I lost count how many times we changed the set up in the room.
We tried many variations! At some point, we were in search of a set up that would create the illusion of space.
The next moment we wanted a set up of ensuring that there was good “social distance” between the beds!
Barbra and I would push the beds while Mandy behaved as if she had once worked as a removals person as she knew how to tilt what needed to be moved through just instruction.
Others may be wondering what I did as I have details on what others did.
I simply accumulated what to share with you! Besides, I would probe my room mates for discussion regarding reproductive health issues.
The discussion was free. We bemoaned painful and heavy periods which had also contributed to fear of cervical cancer. We encouraged each other to have regular screening done. Screening is the sure way to know what one has and does not.
At times we would share how aches and pains seemed to have become part of our lives. We were happier using brooms and mops standing rather than work bent or kneeling. We were eager to have things that made our work easier.
The 2024 SADC theme is “Promoting Innovation to Unlock Opportunities for Sustained Economic Growth and Development Towards an Industrialised SADC. Women in the region, my room mates and I included should participate actively to ensure that opportunities are unlocked.
As women we should not allow the reproductive health issues to make us back benchers as far as innovation and industrialisation are concerned.
Instead we can be so innovative that period or no period, menopause or no menopause we work smart to benefit from industrialisation!
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